Antenna-equipped cards such as wireless LAN cards and data communication cards used in portable telephone systems have been in practical use for wireless data communications. An antenna-equipped card, which enables a personal computer, a Personal Digital Assistant (PDA), a digital camera or the like to communicate wirelessly with an external electronic device, has a communication controller, which executes modulation for data being sent to the external device and demodulation for data being received from the external device.
For example, as shown in FIG. 5, an antenna-equipped card 105 used with a digital camera 101 comprises an antenna unit 106, which extrudes along a side of the card 105. The card 105 itself is inserted removably into a card connector (card slot) 102, which is provided in the digital camera 101. Image data of photos taken by the digital camera 101 are sent through the antenna unit 106 of the antenna-equipped card 105 to an external device, for example, a printer. There is also another type of antenna-equipped card 110 whose antenna is miniaturized (for example, refer to Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2003-298897).
However, when an antenna-equipped card is inserted into the card connector of an electronic device, for example, a digital camera, the antenna unit of the card is positioned to protrude from the main body of the device. For the operation of the device, this protrusion is an obstruction, which can be caught accidentally by another object. If such an accident happens, then the antenna unit may be damaged or pulled unintentionally and detached electrically, disrupting the data communication. Also, the protrusion of the antenna unit of a card from the main body of a device can be a disfigurement to the exterior appearance of the device.